what should I do with my hair? A quick trip to Asheville and my DiL's highly talented scissors isn't feasible, so I'm going to my former (for 3 or 4 cuts before I left town) hair guy. I like him a lot but we don't have enough history for me to trust him implicitly yet, and this is a critical step, because this haircut is probably going to be the one I'll be wearing in my new business photos. By summer I will probably cut it super-short, because this highly humid climate makes the neat bob spectacularly fail by noon. But...eeek. I will probably chicken out and go for a trim and decide later, unless he's feeling inspired - if he has a great idea I may just let him go for it. God, I'm scared, but at the same time, ready for a change, but at the same time, aieee! Business photos! Scary!!!
Vanity - I hate to break it to you, young'uns, it doesn't abandon you when you pass 50 and have granddaughters, it just gets more...real. You pass the point where you have the glow of youth to cover minor imperfections, and I'm just not one for really intensive perfectionist grooming and I do want to look like myself, but...put together. I still want to like what I see in the mirror, and dammit, I really want to like what I see on business cards and advertising copy and all that other crap that goes with real estate work in this era.
This is a kind of creepy new world for me. I can't remember what any of the agents I worked with 20something years ago looked like. It wasn't an issue. Sometimes there'd be a small, postage-stamp-sized picture in the corner of an ad, a studio shot often taken ten years earlier, but usually it was a brokerage name and an agent's name and a number to call. Now, I have to Brand Myself all over the place. God help me.
I have a lot of very solid, very ME ideas about how I want to do business and none of them involve cute, catchy website names and Glamour Shots photos, but at the same time, I have to be at least moderately cooperative about all that stuff. I'm not a social butterfly or fake-it-till-you-make-it bullshit artist, and I'd rather spend my time doing research and going to seminars on taxes and short sales and REOs than on any of this marketing and branding yourself nonsense. But I know it's also part of the job, and I AM vain about my appearance, so I'll be clutching the hair guy's chair with white knuckles. Wish me luck.
There;s always a wig...
ReplyDeleteKimmen
Oh yeah, a wig. The sweat pouring down my face would be such an improvement! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe real question is have you ever gotten a really bad haircut that couldn't be fixed easily... I for one have never gotten a haircut so bad I couldn't have gotten pictures done in it (even if it wasn't a good cut and took a lot more effort to get my hair to turn under, or whatever). That's not to say I've never had a haircut I didn't like, or that didn't act the way I wanted, but I've never had one end up horrible. (Now perms on the other hand...but that had nothing to do with the hairCUT)
ReplyDeleteNow if you've truly had horrendous haircuts before... I'd be worried... but if not, a haircut is certainly better than no haircut in my book
(Anonymous #2 here)
Oh, hell yeah, I have had unfixably bad short haircuts, and a couple of times they happened at the hands of stylists I'd previously trusted! I have a history of haircut trauma, and I'm really not picky (as you can see from that photo, as long as it turns out neat and professional looking, I'm content).
ReplyDeletecan't you use the photo you had on the N.C. business cards? Isn't it digital?
ReplyDeleteIt depends on the office policy. A lot of offices require a studio shot for uniformity.
ReplyDelete